Seto Masato is a representative figure of the current Japanese photography school. His photographic works are expressive, and his image style is known for its rigor and delicacy. His keen insight is unique among the numerous photography schools. 5A1 Art Space is honored to host a photography exhibition of Japanese photographer Seto Masato. This exhibition also exhibits three sets of classic works with different visual styles, including Binran, Picnic, and Silent Mode 2020. It can be called a strange visual journey, taking us into the tortuous and complex image world of Seto Masato.
Binran was filmed in 2006, and it took more than two and a half years to complete the filming project. Perhaps betel nut always gives people a tropical atmosphere brought by the south wind. It is hard to say when this exotic fruit, which originated in the Southeast Asia, conquered the island of Taiwan. Because the arecaline contained in the fruit has hallucinogenic properties, it has been listed as a banned substance in some countries, but in Taiwan, betel nut is a gift for the working people to relieve their hard work all day. In the past farming period, betel nut stalls could be seen all over Taiwan, but with the local economic and social changes, betel nut stalls also transformed with the times. Its transformation came in a sensual and dreamy way. The old uncles and grandmothers in the old stalls are no longer there, replaced by a group of graceful young people. Under the specially made glass houses and dazzling neon lights, each betel nut adds a piece of unbridled gorgeous reverie; this byproduct of the post-industrial era has suddenly become popular in Taiwan. In the video project "Binran", Seto Masato's shooting techniques are extremely rigorous and meticulous from color, structure to framing. He stays away from the impromptu quick-shot emotional fluctuations and curiosity, and objectively records the bizarre social phenomena emerging in the current economic transformation with a calm and detached attitude. These girls in the glass house are watched by all kinds of strange eyes and struggle to live on the edge of reality, which is a microcosm of the absurd and surreal in real society.
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"The time I was born and grew up there as a teenager has become a short but dense time in my memory, and the smell of carbide lamps that perhaps no one has forgotten is everywhere.
The street corner in my memory, the portrait in the frame and placed in the window, looking straight at the main road of the city, even now looking through the glass window, is probably a faint scene."
-Quoted from Asian Family Story by Seto Masato
Photography and literature are not necessarily closely connected, but Seto Masato, who can master both at the same time, is indeed a leader in the Japanese photography industry. He has won the Japan New Wave Literature Award and has profound literary attainments. His writing is beautiful and simple and delicate. The work titled Picnic is a series of stories about encounters with summer, with blue skies, bright sunshine, and green grass. The author uses the tone of love poems to make ordinary holidays seem more everyday. The pictures are full of emotional connections and create memories that are warmer than summer.
Following Silent Mode in 1996, Seto Masato continued to advance the project in an experimental direction many years later, creating the Silent Mode 2020 series. He tried to push the ontology of photography to a more internalized and spiritual state. Photography is no longer limited to the record and portrayal in front of the lens, but a spiritual exploration behind the camera obscura.
"Photography is just an illusion.
That's why we have to make this world more real,
That's why we have to make this world more real and vivid.
This is the original feeling of time and the world,
It's an illusion, but it's another real reality we see, and that's photography.
The eyes always drift between the wandering self and the void.
In the depths of the gaze staring at the illusion, moving towards the self,
Finally, its lost focus flips,
It reaches and stimulates the retina of the self.
The afterimage becomes human memory in the form of a photograph."
──Seto Masato
Exhibition Scene：
About the Artist：
Place M Photography Gallery, founded by Seto Masato in 1987, has been a gathering place for Japanese image poetics for more than 30 years.
In 2021, Seto Masato was appointed as the deputy director of the Kiyosato Museum of Photography in Japan.
